Frenetic ramblings from the start of the "War on Terror" logging my attempts to film outside Finsbury park mosque over 3 years and sitting through all the subsequent court cases. These days I write about whatever and generally stay out of trouble. Do visit Youtube.com/malungtvnews

March 27, 2007

I was being a bit flippant about the way this whole slavery thing is going down in the news. No more after Rageh Omaars frightening programme last night. I certainly looked at the two silks I bought in Varanasi in a different way. Seeing the fear on the faces of Sudanese and Yemeni kids being arrested and rehabilitated in Saudi, or the horror of child prostitution from the mouth of a sixteen year old cambodian girl- slavery still exists.

I'm of an age now when I am not utopic for change anymore, neither do I want to be resigned about the state of things. To me it is all about what happens. Ian Paisley has proved things can still change. Even watching on TV I still couldn't quite believe it, and in the end it was all down to water bills.

March 26, 2007

Just watched Peter Hitchens on TV. Very good stuff. His encounter with George Mombiot was the escence of this theory I am on about the disolution of traditional "left and right" being our way forward. I would disagree with his conclusions about Cameron in that if Cameron has had a genuine personal change of heart in terms of environmental issues, if only in the last eighteen months and he then goes on to try and educate the blue rinse brigade this can only be a good thing. We would get to see results were he elected- same as the other side. Whether its just "vote winning" doesn't matter.

Also I would disagree with Hitchens final conclusions that the country is strongly governed only if two opposites clash strongly. Whenever I watch the house of commons on TV my first though is always "Right. Fuck this. Lets try something else."

March 25, 2007

I've never really got the notion of responsibility for your ancestors evils. I'm not responsible in any way for the slave trade. If I had to say sorry, it would be only the English half of me which should have to admit responsibility so I would be half sorry.

I suppose Tony Blair can't say "sorry" for the same reason those responsible for the Bopal disaster can't officially apologise, in that if they apologised they would become culpable legally and therefore open to claims of damages.

In other "Apology news" I totally missed The "IoS" backtrack on their ten year campaign for Cannabis legalisation. Maybe I was too stoned to notice. I don't really understand this either.

From the printed edition:

A report published in The Lancet last week showed how cannabis is more harmful than drugs such as LSD and Ecstacy- but less so than Alchohol and tobacco

But are the IoS calling for Alchohol and Tobacco to be reclassified? No. So Skunk is ten times more powerful and undoutably linked to addiction and scizophrenia but are they calling for the legalisation of normal home grown ganja and hash? No.

Thousands upon thousands turned out despite freezing temperatures and hairy travel conditions. We met bikers who drove up all night from Huntsville, Alabama; a retired NYC firefighter who arrived here at 2am; college students who traveled from Massachusetts; a Vietnam veteran's wife who bought plane tickets at the last minute from San Francisco;

In a half-hour interview on Tuesday in her Senate office, Mrs. Clinton said the scaled-down American military force that she would maintain would stay off the streets in Baghdad and would no longer try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence — even if it descended into ethnic cleansing.

Bloody fantastic doco. I remember Stephen Fry's famous disappearing act but didn't realise it was such a long time ago. In this doc he's managed to interview a broad cross section of people, some famous friends others not but all with valuable insights into this condition.

The most beautiful part was when he interviewed a lady who used to be a manager of B&Q with her kids. Even the youngest was fully engaged in the discussion of their mother, all thought their mother had a precious gift.

It all made so much sense to me. It was so funny hearing all the different stories of people "going off on a mad one" chasing various goals which made sense to them at the time. He went through various peoples attempts at a cure, Richard Dreyfus spoke about Lithium, a London doctor said she took 2g of cod liver oil a day. I was suprised no one mentioned meditation or acupuncture as they are the only things which have helped me for any length of time.

March 13, 2007

I borrowed my neighbours Antoria and its brought back all the memories of the Westone Rainbow I used to borrow maybe 16 years ago. I like the jangly edge of these things and the hissy feedback though this sunburst is a bit garish for me.

"It's really the height of hypocrisy, countries that were instrumental in fighting this war, initiated this war, fought this war and that through their botch-ups have created this chaos in Iraq today these countries are refusing to receive refugees coming from Iraq...

...Sweden has a relatively generous asylum policy; more than 80,000 Iraqis have already settled here; now word's got out among the new wave of exiles, Sweden's been deluged. Last year it accepted half of all the Iraqis smuggled into the European Union.

Hey, its genuinely nice to see our opposition leader David Cameron taking to Youtube. So nice I managed to say so three times on his channel webcameronuk although I'm not sure how long my comments will stay up when he sees the video I dedicated to him. When I was a kid, Thatcher, Tebbit et all were Satan, no question. This Tory-lite with a touchy feely new leader still takes getting used to.

Considering his channel is backed by a national Political party I'm competing fairly well in terms of Youtube viewers and comments. I always thought the internet would become a great leveller, but then again I don't think the average elderly Tory has even heard of Youtube.

Mr. Camel and I discussed a while back what it would take for us to move to the right, the left being such a miserable abject faliure over here. I often wonder if we would see a shock Tory landslide if they decided to legalise cannabis at the last minute. Not likely says David here, though I heard a Tory on Question Time speak favourably of the RSA report.

The film Bulworth was on TV last night. If I had a chance I'd vote Bulworth every time. So would everyone, so how come we can't? Joking (and fiction) aside one day we are going to have to see beyond factional politics and find something which works for everyone and that'll involve talking. Everybody talking. Thats a revolutionary idea no?

March 09, 2007

The message below says: IF you like this then pls pass on the link - I need your help since almost ALL RADIO/ TV refused to play this cos it was deemed 'too controversial' - I don't know what the fuss is about but would appreciate your help.

Hamid said the Afghans and the Arabs have a common enemy, but don't necessarily like each other. He described the Arabs as firebrand Islamists who don't obey orders and are obsessed with martyrdom. "They won't stop shooting even when they are told to. And they always write messages home before a battle -- they get ready to die. I know them well, and I don't like them; they just don't trust Afghans."

The fighters are confident about the conflict's outcome. "The American troops move slowly, they carry pounds of body armor and equipment," Hamid said. "You can't win if you can't move on these mountains. Their helicopters are the only real danger for us, but we have learned how to hit them, even without Stingers...

...He would not answer questions on the presence of al Qaeda's leaders in the region. But the Konar-Nuristan triangle, including the Pakistani tribal district of Bajaur, is thought to be the most likely hideout for bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a number of other key figures.

"You must understand," Musa Khan said, "that one Arab is worth 10 Afghans in terms of religious zeal. They truly hate the West and all Westerners, without exception. They would never allow the press on these mountains. They are not fighting our war, but their own personal jihad. Protecting their own people and achieving martyrdom are their first priority."

Claudo invited me to go with him to Afghanistan a while back but I'm just not up for any of this warzone stuff. Its interesting seeing the (long standing) difference between Afghans and Al-Qaeda Saudi's. The only people I ever got any real hassle from in Finsbury park were Saudi's.

I watched The Great Global Warming Swindle last night. Hilarious. I'm off out to buy a 4X4 now. No seriously I spent a lot of time slagging my Republican buddies when they used to go on about this. I thought the people they interviewed were very interesting and they explained everything well. No one I was watching it with could wait till it finished to start debating about it so I have no idea what I reckon about it all.

March 08, 2007

I see from Mr. In Texas' blog Ann Coulter has even managed to piss off US Conservatives now. If she started drinking lots of whisky and smoking crack she could relaunch herself as some sort of risque comedian maybe. I've never been particularly offended by her.

UPDATE: Mickey takes it all a bit serious here. What is wrong with her? She needs to chill out. I mean Bill O'Riley can't help it but Mickey's got money. Shes got a happy little family. I think she needs to experiment more sexually. If she experimented a bit more sexually she'd probably just give up the whole Conservative thing, move to Hawaii and smoke dope. Coulters actual speech is here. Whats wrong with that? It's comedy. People are laughing. Whats the big deal? She is sort of funny in a rightwing way. She'd be funnier if she drank whisky and smoked crack. She's a bit scrawny though innit?

I'm pretty sure Beth who posted this used to be a regular commenter over at Sparkle's blog. To me this is really disturbing and misdirrected. I thought that about anarchists who focused their energy on fighting the Police over here. If you think you are right, alienating ex-servicemen is pointless. I'm not sure of the truth behind it all.

As I say, I'm not sure of the truth behind all this. I have heard the Police in the US are more violent than over here and I should imagine Black Bloc are more violent too. Symbolic violence achieves nothing in my opinion. Oppressive businessmen and women are laughing.

PS-The original post on some US indymedia site is more enlightening. When you scroll down you'll see our old friend Mickey Malkin has waded in.

This is a new edit. I still have a lot of unused footage up my sleeve. I was really suprised when I heard Hamza was arrested. As he had been preaching every friday in full view and not hiding the idea that he was in anyway dangerous seemed farfetched.

This is one thing I'll never understand. Not so much the act of martyrdom, but why those who preach it get to stay alive. To me they seem like "coatholders" just the same as George Bush, the diference being of course that these guys are holding the coats of children.

March 06, 2007

A neighbour of mine, Matt has just got back from Palestine. He's been blogging his trip here

Jenin is split in two; Jenin city and Jenin camp (dating back to 1953). The theatre is located in the camp - a network of narrow winding lanes navigating around haphazard concrete houses across the hill side. Images of young men (either drawn stylized or photos) holding large guns - martyrs - are all most the only images on the streets. Some are lit up almost as shrines, others are faded posters on shop front shutters. The imagery is pervasive; for it to be normal is as far alien to me as anything else I have ever seen. But yet for the residents normal is what the martyr has become.